L.

i ~ Reviews

Theorists have insisted on taking the

finger trap apa rt, some with blades, some
with shotguns, either insu lte d by the
audacity of the nasty little prank or driven
to demystify its purportedly si m ple
mechanics in order to prove that it is no
gre at thing , concealing their eleme nta l
ho rror at its momentary, unyielding grip. A
few manage to push deeper on and
through to find themselves released and
unharmed . Fortunately Robin Mookerjee is
one of the latte r.
THE GENERIC VERONICA
TRANSGRESSIVE FICTION: In Transgressive Fiction: The New Satiric
Tradition (2013) Mookerjee has put a great
THE NEW SATIRIC deal of effort into not domesticat in g the
TRADITION affect ive potential of the transgressive
texts, but while he has not dismembered
REVIEWED BY MOLLY HOEY the text, attempting to divine meaning
from its entrails, there is st ill somethin g of
It seems that any discussion of subversive a performance in this ritualistic display of
fiction begins wit h someone dutifully textua I sub m ission.
pointing out that there is nothing new
about subvers ive fiction ; its content, In an attempt to wrestle the transgressive
top ics, language and devices are all old paradox (how do you analyse this material
hat. Yet since its popularisation in the early without neutralising it) Mookerjee has
' 990S a ran ge of scho larly texts have been opted for allocat ing transgressive fiction
publ ished that attempt to tackle and make into the sat i ric tradition. This is a
anew the finger trap that is transgressive reasonable stateme nt, and well evidenced.
fiction . But like many other analytical attempts to
exami ne transgress ive fiction, it fee ls like
The temptation to write on transgressive Mookerj ee has performed a ge n eric
fiction is understandable; it's still a veronica.
relatively under-studied genre and it has
the o ld controve rsy banner to bring in By placing transgressive texts within the
interest. Who doesn't want to have the satiric tradition Mooke rje e has offered
myst er ie s of the hum an psyche revealed literary immunity to the paralogic content
to them in a logical and reasonable voice? of transgressive texts, which their
defenders may claim is no bad thing. But I
The proclivity for readers to fig ht against argue that anything that negates the
these texts is matched on Iy by th e fixation affective and v i o l at in g nature of
of th eo ri sts to try and decipher them. transgressive fiction removes its potency

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 VOLUME 41, 2014

and power. This is an issue that covers all secondary epic are composed as an
studies of subversive material and assurance of safety and consistency in
Mookerjee clearly indicates the way in the face of a hostile, unpredictable
which transgressive fiction belongs to the natural world, satire skeptically takes
satiric tradition; but I am left wondering on art and language. It therefore has a
whether anything as ambiguous, reflexive double consciousness, to borrow the
and slippery as transgressive fiction can Emersonian concept and one which
really be considered satire. joins the thematic and the formal. It
proposes a Kantian (or proto-Kantian)
Mookerjee claims that transgressive insistence on the freedom of aesthetic
fiction is about examining systems, but he play and employs this freedom to
needs to go further and acknowledge that represent the chaos tamed by
in its analysis of systems transgressive establishment literature. (19)
fiction is always unfolding itself, always
presenting a Janus face, because the However, this can be taken further: it is the
moment it settles upon a pedagogy it text itself, by its own essential nature, that
instantly undermines itself. How, for is the trickster. The trick is on the reader,
example, can you make claims of escaping the narrator, the critic and the theorist.
overarching systems when you function Perhaps there is no "reason" at all apart
within the greatest of all organising from the play of language and an
media: language? invitation to pointless and endless
journeys of analysis and a slight feeling of
The reading of transgressive fiction is Stockholm syndrome?
problematic in its very nature; even if one
treads very lightly elements will be broken As Mookerjee notes, "the trickster
and conceived underfoot. What is so often muddies high gods," but these gods
overlooked is that transgressive fiction, include the genre, the reader, the theorist
like the finger trap, works by playing on and itself. After all, it is the ultimate
assumptions and appearances, and that it trickster that can make you sit through a
is a little joke at the reader's expense. visceral yet detached depiction of a
prepubescent boy being sodomised in a
Anthony Julius has noted in his work cinema whilst he tries to watch Friday the
Transgressions: the Offences of Art this 73th, and then tell you it's really all about
correlation in regards to visual aesthetics and modern guilt.
transgreSSive art: "One risks under-
interpreting the work if one overlooks this The rest of Mookerjee's argument also
baiting of the spectator" (Julius, 16). displays some small inconsistencies. In one
chapter he makes three reasonable claims:
Mookerjee notes the role of the trickster
narrator in transgressive texts: Many critics misread Menippean satire
precisely because they read it through
While oral tradition, myth and the lens of a specific belief system.

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IJ I'Q Reviews

Alternatively, critics focus on the insult as, "The withdrawal of the author as an
suffered by the body-sometimes only identifiable presence places the emphasis
suggested-viewing this as a form of on the form of the story itself by draining
sensationalism. However, satire is the epic of the authority of testimony"
constructed to frustrate attempts to (25). In comparing the narrator to the
read through any moral or philosophical author Mookerjee also invites other critics
system and to frustrate attempts to to start down the slippery path of
identify the author's intent ... (159) responsibility and censorship.

Firstly, Mookerjee makes the succinct Transgressive Fiction: The New Satiric
claim that transgressive fictions cannot be Tradition places transgressive fiction in a
analysed through "the lens of a specific social/historical framework, rather than a
belief system" and then, elsewhere, literary theory one. What Mookerjee has
recommends they be read as a form of contributed to the study of transgressive
social commentary, which tries to draw fiction is a solid history into its
attention to any "systems which unify development and an examination of its
experience" and a "truth behind culture." multiple manifestations, though some of
the texts selected don't really shelter
The second claim about critics focusing on under the transgressive umbrella.
the violent or violating elements is shrewd.
However, after claiming that transgressive Mookerjee emphasises a "transgressive
fiction "attempts to frustrate attempts to legacy" within these books, implying that
identify the author's intent" he then a text becomes transgressive simply for
proceeds to discuss these authors' beliefs: containing abjection or "transgressive
"Menippean and transgressive fiction may elements." For a text to don the
be seen as regressive, but its authors view transgressive label it must be transgressive
it as revelatory of a truth that emerges in in its very nature. It must play with the
the absence of frameworks, theories, expectation of analysis as well as violate
ideologies, and formulaic beliefs" (16). and confront. Simply because a text deals
with abjection and the grotesque does not
He then adds to this confusion by referring make it transgressive; therefore selections
to authors and narrators interchangeably. like Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus
This becomes almost maddening when he (1993) sit awkwardly.
constantly refers to The Don (from Will
Self's 1992 work Cock and Bull) and Will Mookerjee has done a service in cooling a
Self as though they are interchangeable few myths about the nature of
(this thankfully stops when he considers transgressive fiction: that it is not simply
the work of Bret Easton Ellis and Irvine about shock value or controversy and that
Welsh). He also has a tendency to use an the ambiguous and mocking nature of
author's earlier work to fill in gaps and transgressive fiction is essential to its
flatten out the ambiguity of these texts. appeal. Mookerjee also provides the reader
This sits awkwardly with statements such with an informative and well-considered

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section on American Psycho (1991) and

makes some insightful comments on the
discrepancy that is shown between
transgressive fiction and supposedly
romantic work such as Anne Rice's
Interview with the Vampire (1976). He also
takes great effort to show why critics are
often so appalled with these texts, and
describes methods to get beyond the
initial shock factor.
ADRIAN J WALKER

But a scholarly ana lysis of transgressive

fiction is always going to be a tragic yet
THE END OF THE WORLD
addictive act. The power of any object is RUNNING CLUB
removed when it is demystified: when the
monster is shown to be simply disfigured REVIEWED BY KYNAN ISOKANGAS

and the subversive texts just words.

The End of the World Running Club (2014)
I am not claiming I could have done a comes from Scottish author Adrian J.
better job. Walker. It is se lf- published, and initially I
found it quite hard to gain access to a
Abjection brings us back time and again- copy, but once I started reading the book,
with scalpel and shotgun, with politics it was impossible to put down. The novel 's
and linguistics-in an attempt to take the protagonist is Edgar Hill, a 35-year-o ld
beast down, to show the finger trap as father of two who is an overweight
woven straw boozehound , bored of the everyday,
struggling through life, and in need of a
Mookerjee has done a service in trying to change; the end of the wor ld certain ly
counteract much of the sensationalist bad shakes things up.
press that subversive texts often create.
He offers us a history within which Ed and his family are trapped in their cellar
subve rsive w riting is given context and he after thousands of devastating asteroid
has attempted to look at these texts strikes across the United Kingdom. After a
objective ly, and at the book's end we have few weeks they are rescued and taken to
a well-e xecuted display of competency an army barracks in Edinburgh where the
and a decent death, but as we stand, extent of the damage is finally revealed.
looking at the beast, we must admit that The world as Ed once knew it is all but
we still know nothing of its nature. finished; the countrys id e now consists of
cloud and ash, destroyed buildings ,
The Generic Veronica. Transgressive Fiction: canyons and craters. But, Ed's life seems to
The New Satiric Tradition by Mookerjee, be working out post-apocalypse ; he even
Robin. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, has a sa lvaging role looking for food and
2013. ISBN 0230294022. RRP $115· pp. 503.

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